I thought it might be nice to include a bulleted list of destinations and resources so that if you’re planning your own trip, you can just grab information from here without having to dig through all my journals. Of course, I still recommend looking through the rest of the blog posts to see detailed advice and thoughts plus pictures! Trip planning was heavily facilitated and tracked using an app called WanderLog.

The 15th was our last full day in Japan :( It’s a sucky feeling! But we were prepared to make the most of it. We got coffee and pastries for breakfast at a place called Yamazaki Café and Bakery. I thought the pastries were quite good! Then we took the train to Sunshine City! Sunshine City is a big mall with a bunch of cool stuff. I was most interested in the Pokemon Mega Tokyo but we saw some other cool stuff there too.

Today we had to check out of the ryokan and leave Kyoto :(. Before we left we had the ryokan breakfast which was just as intense as the day before’s. So much tofu for breakfast! It was tough because this was our friend’s favorite city and we had a really lovely stay. But on the plus side we got to ride the shinkansen for the first time this trip. I can say a lot of things about how Japan has public utilities figured out and transit is certainly one of them.

Monday my boyfriend and I woke up to get breakfast at the ryokan. This would be a similar experience to the night before but this time presumably breakfast food. It still required some adventurous eating so our friends went off to get their own breakfast. Afterwards we had time to just relax so we enjoyed the onsen on our balcony for a while. We were able to drink coffee and get ready leisurely for our day out.

We started our morning with the tea tasting at Ippodo. They were able to squeeze us in for a tasting at 10 AM. They give you a tasting of their four primary teas, but there are many alternatives in the store. My favorite tea in Japan has been hojicha which is a type of roasted tea. They were also really nice about letting our friend try making the matcha herself.

Today we tried out the hotel breakfast – it was pretty much indistinguishable from the breakfast in our hotel from Sapporo – in other words it was fine. The weirdest part was that the restaurant is in the basement, is themed visually as an Italian restaurant but is playing 50’s era American music and serving Japanese breakfast. We had to get an early start to head out to Nara which is about an hour on public transit between the bus and the train.

Today was a BIG temple day for us in Kyoto. We needed to have a big strong breakfast to give us energy. We went to a place called Shinshindo Sanjo Kawaramachi which is a bakery slash restaurant. The premium breakfast was hearty with scrambled eggs, sausage, salad and endless bread from a variety basket. So I got to get a croissant, garlic bread and cheesy bread. Also they offered endless coffee which I took advantage of.

The 8th was a day of travel. We had our breakfast at the Tokyu Stay hotel in Sapporo and then started the journey to the airport to fly to Kyoto. This involved a subway ride to the JR line. Airport security was slow but we got lucky (? haha) in that our flight was slightly delayed so we weren’t too stressed about missing boarding. The flight from Sapporo to Kyoto is also only a few hours.

Today we had breakfast at a really cool spot called Sapporo Pancake & Parfait Last Mint. The vibes were amazing and it was very quiet and empty there when we arrived. We ordered the apple caramel pancakes and the mixed berry with cream and they were both amazing! While they weren’t fluffy pancakes like on our first day, the texture and flavor was still really good and I didn’t feel sick from too much sugar either.

Today’s plan was to head to the Yoichi Whisky Distillery. From where we were staying it was probably an hour and a half to two hour train ride all said with walking and transferring. The terminus of the train is a very short walk to the distillery in Yoichi and it’s a really pretty ride that goes along the Sea of Japan. The distillery is this big compound with really cute architecture and it was extra pretty with all the fresh snow.

We had a nice chill Sunday in Sapporo. We kept it simple and paid for the breakfast buffet in the hotel lobby. A friend of a friend was coincidentally also in Sapporo and she speaks Japanese fluently so she was able to find us and book us an all day onsen experience that included lunch and a massage at a hotel called The Grand Blissen Hotel. From where we’re staying in Sapporo it was roughly an hour bus ride but that went pretty smoothly for us, no complaints.

Today is the start of the Sapporo Snow Festival which we did in fact plan the timing of this trip around. It lasts a week and features tons of snow sculptures in a park spanning several blocks. The Sapporo TV tower is also in the path of the festival, which you can go into and do some shopping or ride the elevator to the observatory. It’s pretty funny that they have a cartoon character mascot for the TV tower and each level of the staircase features him in different scenes and “did you know?

Our cab ride back to Sapporo was about 2 hours from Niseko and all went off without a hitch. We’re staying at the Tokyu Stay Sapporo which for better or for worse is back to the small, utilitarian city hotel room. What it lacks in roominess or luxury it makes up for in practicality and location – we were able to leave the hotel, turn a corner, and be in a main mall drag.

To get from Tokyo to Niseko we flew to Sapporo and then took a chartered cab the 2 or so hours drive. Flying domestically in Japan was pretty painless although it was a long day of taking the JR to the Skyliner to get to the airport, then actually flying, then doing the drive. You can take the Shinkansen but as I understand it it’s a pretty long train ride.

Monday was our final day in Tokyo. For breakfast, we went to Cafe 1886 which is actually the lobby cafe for a local Bosch office. It was funny because I thought it was just a themed cafe for a while. They’ve got Bosch products on display and the order number stands were machining prototype blocks. While it’s pretty funny to eat a random company cafe on vacation, the food and coffee were actually pretty good.

For breakfast on Sunday we went to White Glass in an effort to try out as many local cafes as possible. I forgot my phone for pictures but I thought the coffee was decent and the fruity crumbly cake was good. It seems like in Japan sweets are typically less sweet and more mild than in the US. We headed over to Yoyogi Park which is an awesome place to walk around.

Today we got up to get breakfast and coffee at Hoshino Coffee which is a chain in Japan. I got a breakfast sandwich and a coffee. Look at this tiny milk pitcher!! Our main plan for the day was Teamlab Planets Tokyo. This is an art exhibit slash sensory experience. Sort of between a normal art museum, Museum of Ice Cream style Instagram photo ops and something like Meow Wolf. For Teamlab Planets specifically you take your shoes off and walk through this maze of sorts with different rooms that have their own sensory experience and story.

Ohayo from Japan! I am super stoked to be in Japan for a few weeks for my first trip abroad since COVID happened. It’s my first time in Asia and Japan so I’ve got a lot to experience in a short time. My boyfriend has been to Japan a few times and he loves it here so we knew when COVID restrictions were lifted this would be one of the first places we’d want to go.